The History Of Rice Farming

What is the life of the farmer? Think You’re Cut Out For Doing Farm?

The farmer’s life revolves around land preparation, planting season, growing season and harvesting season.

It’s land preparation season for this small time farmer. The farmer prepares its land by spreading the rice straw throughout the rice paddy. Plowing the field either by machine or by a cow. Then they irrigate and flattens the rice paddy. They put fertilizer, carbonized rice hulls and vermicast. This would take a month more or less to fully prepare the land.

Then they prepare their seedling bed. You form a seed bed just enough for 10 kg of rice seed for 2 to 3 hectares. For some, they practice 15 days to transplant. Others use 20 to 25 days. Then a farmer contacts people to transplant for them. It’s a heavy job for just one person. It’s the second busy season for the farmer.

Then a farmer would tend the rice paddy. The farmer put water on the rice paddy by: irrigation or rainfall. So that the grass will not grow and compete with the minerals intended for the rice. Not too much water or else you will drown them. They watch out for the golden snail, they will eat your rice. As a control for the golden snail, the farmer releases a flock of ducks so that they will eat the pest. Then with the Stem borer, the farmer uses Trichogramma Japonicum. Some farmer uses concoction: Natural Fermented Technology System. Like fermented plant juice, fermented fruit juice, fish amino acid, and others. Spraying every 7 to 10 days at dusk or dawn.

It’s the season to harvest. Many rice paddies are being harvested. It’s a competition of finding human labor to harvest your rice. But it’s the busiest time of the farmer’s life. They harvest the rice using sickle or by machine. Other people will glean in the field. To sell or for personal consumption. Then they pile it into a big mound. For the thresher people to separate the rice from the rice straw. Then other people are hired to carry sacks of rice toward the drier. They can also do it mechanically. Then it goes to the milling station to be milled. And there you have the rice ready to cook.